Best Methods and Tools for Online Educators to Give Students Helpful and Meaningful Feedback

Giving Feedback to Students that Stands Out

In last week’s post Tools-of-the-Trade to Make your Online Teaching Even Better I reviewed various tools that help online educators make a connection with students by using media other than text to deliver guidance and instructions to students in online classes.  In this post I focus on how educators teaching online [and face-to-face] can use ed-tech tools effectively to provide formative and summative feedback to their students. I’ve included several resources and examples of ed-tech tools in this post in a case study format featuring both online and face-to-face educators describing their methods. 

The Case for Formative Feedback
Formative feedback in some cases is more valuable to student learning than the final assessment. For instance, when a final grade comes later in the course session the student is not as receptive to feedback, and often focuses on the grade not the feedback. Formative input on the other hand allows instructors to promote deeper learning by prompting students to dig deeper and expand and clarify their argument or position while the student in engaged in the learning process. Instructors that foster depth of learning with this kind of real-time feedback, push their students to dig deeper and think more critically. Below is a selection of excellent and user-friendly ed-tech tools that allow educators to give this kind of input seamlessly.  

Case study #1: Using Audio Feedback  A long-time online educator based in Austria outlines in a blog post Audio feedback and human touch her methods and rationale for using audio feedback for student assignments. She captures the essence of how students benefit by audio feedback in this paragraph:

“I feel that by using voice recording and screen casting tools, we can now provide more personal, more meaningful and more effective instruction in an acoustically and/or visually supported manner. Intonation and voice tone both help to convey feelings, which in turn really help to create tutor presence and build rapport (the human touch). Finally, since students can decide when, where and how often they listen/watch, an element of choice is added, a step towards promoting learner autonomy.” Veronica’s Teaching Online Blog

Tools to use for Audio Feedback:  Many LMS platforms have built-in audio tools, Canvas  does as does Desire2Learn. There are also several Apps available for Mac and Android systems that facilitate audio feedback, though Vocaroo seem to be the most highly rated audio app for its simplicity.  I like the audio record feature in Evernote. It allows you to record easily, and then email the voice recording in a note format in a snap.

• Audio feedback and human touch, Veronica’s Teaching Online Blog
• Using Vocaroo for Student Feedback, Teaching Learning and Everything in Between
• How to Record Audio in Evernote, Evernote Support

Case Study #2 Feedback [formative and summative] via Screen Casts.
Screencasts allow an instructor to talk through a student’s work by recording audio comments on the student’s assignment displayed on the instructor’s screen. Below is an example of screen cast where an instructor provides formative feedback to a student on her essay using the free program for screencasts, Jing [screen casts are also used frequently for summative feedback on individual and group assignments].  With this method, the focus is on the students’ work which is featured on the screen—either a document file that has been downloaded onto the instructor’s computer and is opened, or any resource online—Google document, e-portfolio item, etc.  It is best not to sound too formal in screencasts—speaking naturally as you would to a student face-to-face feels more authentic to students.

The resource below is on the platform Screencast.com (associated with Jing, both are by the company TechSmith), and which is free as well. In this instance the professor made this available as a public file, though one can make it private for only those with the link able to view it [a unique link (URL) is created for each screen cast when uploaded to Screencast.com. This functionality is built into the Jing program].

The Center for Writing at the University of Michigan, provides an excellent resource in PDF format Giving Feedback on Student Writing. The screen cast below is drawn from this resource.

Click the image to view a screen cast recording of an instructor giving formative feedback to a student on her essay.  Thanks to University of Michigan’s Writing Center for making this example available.

• Using Jing to Assess Online Student Writing, Teaching Paperless

Case Study #3: Formative Feedback using Google Drive.  A literature professor teaching face-to-face classes at Santa Clara University uses Google Drive (the new term for Google Docs) with his students to provide feedback on the draft copy of students essays.  How it works: The student creates his or her essay in Google Drive, enables the sharing feature and includes the professor’s email address which sends the link to the prof.  The professor then makes comments, notes on each student’s draft document [Google drive provides excellent tools for providing comments in the side bar and/or making comments within the document itself] and the student is automatically notified of the comments made.  

• Google Drive: A Better Method for Giving Students Feedback, Powerful Learning Practice

If there are methods for giving student feedback that you would like to share with readers, please do so by posting a comment.  Other readers benefit greatly with the exchange and sharing of ideas. Thanks!

Other Resources:

• Assessment Toolkit: Giving Assessment Feedback, UNSW Australia
• Talking with Students through Screencasting: Experimentations with Video Feedback to Improve Student Learning, Thompson, R. & M. Lee, The Journal of Interactive Technology & Pedagogy
• Strategies for Providing Feedback in an Online Course, University of Illinois Online Network